Lord of the Flies: The Next Chapter
by iloveny1118
Summary: OneShot, One Chapter. This was actually an English Assignment that I wrote ages ago (well, in March), and my English teacher said she liked it. So here it is! *drum rolls* R&R please!


**~EPILOGUE~**

It was evening. Ralph was walking down the dirt path that led to Castle Rock. Stars were dotting the purple and orange sky, and a transparent, full moon was beginning to show. The air was noticeably cooler than before. Crickets were chirping, then upon Ralph's approach became quiet, only to start their joyous music again a minute later.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and Ralph was thrown to the ground. The cool air became startlingly hot and he began to perspire. The night sky became dark, and strange golden light was shining from on top of the mountain. Raising his head, he saw that the mountain had turned into an enormous volcano, spewing both lava and fire. He tried to get up, but suddenly felt excruciatingly weak, and gave up altogether. He raised his head once more, just in time to see the thick river of lava flowing towards him. Then, he opened his mouth and screamed.

Ralph awoke with a start, sweating, in his bed. He wasn't on the island anymore. He was in his own bed, far away from the place Piggy had died.

He noticed the moonlight streaming through the curtains of his bedroom and guessed that it must be one in the morning. He wondered if he'd actually screamed and woken up anybody.

Ralph closed his eyes, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few months. The rescue. The rehabilitation. Those awful moments in which he and Jack had tried to kill each other in the Center. So much had happened. And even when he came home, he hadn't even gotten to see his own father, even though the war was over. He'd just left, leaving Ralph in the care of a few household maids until his return in three months.

Even though Ralph was thought to be fully rehabilitated, he had dreams about the island, about Simon, and most of all, about Piggy. If only he'd stopped Jack from killing him. If only he hadn't been so harsh towards Piggy when the plane crashed. If only...

Now Ralph was crying softly. It had happened months ago, yet it seemed only recent. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine Jack at his house, back at home, with loving, caring parents. He couldn't imagine Jack crying over the loss of Piggy and Simon. He couldn't forgive him, no matter how many times they'd told him at the Center that we had to be forgiving of one another. Never in his life would Ralph forgive Jack Merridew.

It suddenly dawned on him that they'd all started out at the same place. All of the boys, hunters or fire-makers, had started off as innocent boys stranded on an island. _How did we come to this_? wondered Ralph. He tried to connect the pieces in his mind as to how Jack went from an ordinary British boy to a savage killer, but he just couldn't do it. There must have been something about Jack that Ralph didn't know about. Maybe if he'd taken the time to learn more about Jack, before he became a savage, then he could figure out why Jack became like this.

He thought about how vile Simon's death was, how they foolishly thought he was the beast. Even Ralph couldn't believe he'd thought that the beast was something they could just hunt and kill. _If anything at all, Jack was the beast, or A beast, anyway_, he thought.

Thinking back to the island made Ralph feel a strangely lonely, so he left the thoughts of Jack Merridew, Piggy, Simon, and everybody else behind, as he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

Ralph dreamed again of the island, though it was not quite as vile and as violent as the past dreams he'd had. In this dream, he was sitting on a log in the deserted meeting place, thinking. Suddenly Simon came up from behind him, in the same manner as back up on the cliff, when he was thinking of home. Simon was strangely glowing, and murmuring something to him, but Ralph didn't understand what he was saying. Piggy came out from the forest, he, too, glowing, and sat down next to Ralph, speaking in the same, murmured voice as Simon. Although Ralph couldn't make out their words, he was certain that they had forgiven him for his attitude and his cowardice back on the island.

When he woke up the next morning, he thought about Piggy and Simon talking to him as if he'd been their lifelong friend.

And for the first time in what seemed like ages, Ralph smiled.

**THE END.**


End file.
